Sketching, Baking & Yoga-ing

Better write this quick...both Jon and Emily are now poorly, bless 'em, so I'm probably next on the list to succumb!

Monday night's art class seems to have been very interesting. They came back proudly bearing sketchpads with lots of complicated stuff in them. The lesson was about perspective and proportion, so they learned how to draw the horizon lines and vanishing point lines for streets and buildings and so on, and how to proportion facial features and bodies properly. Pretty in-depth for a seven year old, so we were really pleased with how well Emily coped with all that. They did lots of practice in quick sketching too, with Gary giving them all 30 seconds to sketch him in various poses!!! He spent a lot of time with Emily, encouraging her and helping her understand the technicalities. All good.

Jon and Emily have done a fair bit of perspective and portrait sketching practice at home too, with Jon in particular producing a stunning likeness of David Beckham in approximately three minutes flat! Emily didn't quite capture the likeness when she tried it (but then again I'm not sure she knows who D.B. is, being largely indifferent/immune to contemporary celebrities of all kinds, so that's probably not surprising) but she certainly did produce a very impressive face.

Yesterday we had a lovely Valentines Day. Jon surprised me with a beautiful card and some scrummy red slippers with hearts on. I love slippers. Can never have too many pairs. Odd that, since I can't stand shopping for shoes and only own one pair of casual shoes and a pair of boots. Slippers is a different story altogether :-)) Emily had secretly made us both some beautiful cards and a heart shaped wreath, and was thrilled to bits with a Love Bug cuddly toy Daddy had bought for her. In the afternoon, Romy and Hazel came over to play, and the girls had fun making Valentine Cookies. There was quite a battle over whether more melted chocolate should end up over children or on cookies, although I think the cookies won in the end. Just!

Off to yoga we then went, where Emily learnt the routine she's doing for the display next week. Quite tricky that one, so we'll need lots of practice, I think. Her teacher came to sit with me for a long chat before the class started and said all kinds of wonderful things about Emily and her sweet nature, and how hard's she's working, her concentration and focus levels, her understanding of the spiritual principles behind yoga and her determination to get some of the more difficult poses right even though they're way ahead of where she should be :-)) Very proud Mummy moment. She (the teacher) was also very interested in home education, and is apparently seriously considering taking her eldest, age 7, out of school.

Today, Emily's had a day off, as it were, and has spent all day building ello cities. Or, as she puts it, doing design & technology ;-)) Emily's been invited to join in one of Romy's taekwondo classes, just for fun, this evening, so we're looking forward to that.